Archive for the 'Audio' Category

This is a story that did not get much any press here in the United States when it first ran in 2007: George W. Bush’s grandfather, Prescott Bush, among other prominent American businessmen, was involved in a 1933 plot to overthrow President Franklin D. Roosevelt and install a fascist dictatorship in America allied with Hitler and Mussolini. Here is the story from the BBC. (Story begins at 20 seconds.)

On January 15, 2008, Randy Newman played a provocative song called “A Few Words in Defense of Our Country” at Apple’s MacWorld meeting in San Francisco. Eli at Left I on the News added subtitles so you can really see what he’s saying here.

I was trying to find a way to describe Mike Ferris‘ voice and guitar work. Then I found Mike’s website has an abundance of video and audio. I picked up his two solo albums by placing a call to a hometown music store that I am hoping will buck the trend and stay in business. Horizon Records (in Greenville, South Carolina) also has a nifty little email newsletter that is very informative on new independent music and they are happy to do orders by mail as fast as Amazon.

About that description of Ferris’ unique style, I think Buddy Miller has said it best:

“Mike Farris has enough heart, soul, and power to light up a city. He mixes up the elements and turns them into something new, beautiful, and uniquely his own.”

Here’s a nice song (featuring Delaney and Bonnie Bramlett, George Harrison, Billy Preston and Eric Clapton) for a Sunday afternoon, when one is thinking of going home for Thanksgiving and wondering why it’s suddenly getting dark at 5:15 in the afternoon.

I must admit that I never saw many Icehouse videos before searching for them on YouTube this week. This band was one of those that I experienced entirely on vinyl in the early days of my music purchasing. I soon began to spend all of my cash on vinyl and later CDs, but, in the days I was listening to Icehouse, I was living in my first bedroom in my parents’ house and playing this and other album sides at all hours of the day and night. You might consider playing these videos, but just listening to the songs rather than watching the pictures.

Chan Marshall, aka Cat Power, is a phenomenally talented singer/songwriter originally from Georgia. She earned herself a reputation as an unpredictable performer during years of alcohol abuse, but apparently has gotten sober and found a new appreciation for her work. Here is a series of videos found on YouTube and brought here for your enjoyment.

I just came across this 1994 video from C-SPAN in which Dick Cheney says that invading and occupying Iraq would result in “quagmire”. At the time, he was defending George Bush Sr.’s decision to leave Saddam Hussein standing after the first Iraq War in 1991.

Somewhere along the line, the story changed.

I’d like someone to ask Mr. Cheney when his attitude changed, and why…

I would encourage you to check out Paul Pena, whose name rightfully should be synonymous with Jimi Hendrix, B.B. King, Marvin Gaye and many other great American musicians.

Pena was a great songwriter and guitarist who possessed a voice and spirit touched by God’s hand. (God forgot to touch Paul’s eyes, but that’s another story.)

I learned of him recently when I watched Genghis Blues, a documentary based on Paul Pena’s second life as a great friend of the people of Tuva and a naturally gifted master of the Tuvan throat music style of singing, in which a single human being can sing up to 10 octaves at one time.

Paul learned of Tuvan throat singing by listening to shortwave radio broadcasts from Moscow. He had to learn the Russian language in order to interpret the Tuvan language.

Genghis Blues was nominated for an Academy Award for best documentary film. The film is based on Pena’s invitation to Tuva, a (nearly) lost land and culture between Russia, Mongolia and China, to participate in (and ultimately win) the nation’s singing tournament.

I am sad to write this entry in the past tense. I only learned today that Paul died a couple years ago after a long battle with diabetes.